Caevan, I hope we can agree to disagree about the Synth9. Other than the Mel9, which I already have, this is the only other model in the series that calls to me. I'm with you on most of his examples, but what I really dislike about these demo videos is that they're over-produced, if that's the right word? In a few cases, we're hearing multi-tracked riffs, and in every example, that bloody Drum Machine is going in the background. I think a lot of folks are going to take the thing home and expect to sound like a band, from those videos!

Can't find a purchase price anywhere yet, but I expect it'll be in the same $225+/- range as the others, coincidentally, right around the price of a Roland GK-3 Synth pickup. If you're NOT in need of deep programming or MIDI control, just looking for a few cool sounds, this is much easier and neater than glomming a Synth pickup onto a favorite Guitar.

Edited by Winston Psmith (02/22/1707:46 AM)Edit Reason: x

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"Monsters are real, and Ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." Stephen King

Caevan, I hope we can agree to disagree about the Synth9. Other than the Mel9, which I already have, this is the only other model in the series that calls to me. I'm with you on most of his examples, but what I really dislike about these demo videos is that they're over-produced, if that's the right word? In a few cases, we're hearing multi-tracked riffs, and in every example, that bloody Drum Machine is going in the background. I think a lot of folks are going to take the thing home and expect to sound like a band, from those videos!

Can't find a purchase price anywhere yet, but I expect it'll be in the same $225+/- range as the others, coincidentally, right around the price of a Roland GK-3 Synth pickup. If you're NOT in need of deep programming or MIDI control, just looking for a few cool sounds, this is much easier and neater than glomming a Synth pickup onto a favorite Guitar.

I think you and I agree more than disagree here, Winston; I wouldn't mind having one of these- being of the least usefulness to me of them still means I could make use of it, I just wouldn't use it the way it's demonstrated in that video, playing music that, for the most part, I'd gladly forget. I'd use the Synth9 to generate sounds and music of my own, bearing little resemblance to what's trotted out in the demo-vid. I imagine you would, too! That is, be more original, and less ' '80s review', if you will.

There are cover bands that will get a LOT of miles out of that, though! And more power to 'em.

That all being said, I just find much more of what I'd want and need in all the previous EHX "9"-series pedals. If I had most or all of 'em, I'd likely run several in parallel from time to time, including that Synth9, with other various modulation and delay pedals following. I think I'd likely enjoy running the Synth9 into some distrotion, overdrive, or fuzz- say, my Octron?! It'd be INSANE with the harmonic-overtones of my Sustainiac Model C and my Les Paul!

By the way- how does your Mel9, or this Synth9, work with your 7-String Les Paul? I bet THAT would be AWESOME with this pedal!By the way- how does your Mel9, or this Synth9, work with your 7-String Les Paul? I bet THAT would be AWESOME with this pedal!

And you're so very RIGHT about the convenience of using the Synth9 instead of glomming a synth-pickup onto a favorite guitar!

By the way- how does your Mel9, or this Synth9, work with your 7-String Les Paul? I bet THAT would be AWESOME with this pedal!By the way- how does your Mel9, or this Synth9, work with your 7-String Les Paul? I bet THAT would be AWESOME with this pedal!

And you're so very RIGHT about the convenience of using the Synth9 instead of glomming a synth-pickup onto a favorite guitar!

The Mel9 works very well with all of my Guitars, but it is fun pairing it with the 7-string, as it brings in two unexpected elements, playing in front of people: you don't often see a 7-string LP, even less one that sounds like a Mellotron!

What I've done, so far, is to create a handful of patches in my GT-10 that allow me to run a chain of effects for straight Guitar signal on one (virtual) Channel, then have an effects chain for the Mel9 on the other Channel, with different, discrete effects & Amp models, for each signal chain, like having the Mel9 go through a Rotary effect and a short Delay, into a Full Range Amp model. (The GT-10 has dual Amp models and Noise Suppressors, and you can arrange or route your signal chain pretty much any way you like. I patch the Mel9 in through the GT-10's Send/Return.)

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"Monsters are real, and Ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." Stephen King

@Caevan - Put a Volume pedal in that line-up somewhere, so you can 'swell' the Feedback effect in and out. I find the Volume pedal to be a great assist with the E-Bow, as well. Also, a Volume pedal following your Looper will allow you to fade out Looped material. Some Loopers have a Fade-out feature, or a function that lets you play to the end of the loop, but too often, they just abruptly cut off the loop whenever you hit the switch.

(Does the Strymon allow you to assign an Exp pedal to the Loop playback? I know the Boss doesn't.)

FWIW, that Plus Pedal was too subtle for my taste; I could barely hear what it was doing. It seems like the FreqOut would cover much of that territory, with a little tweaking?

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"Monsters are real, and Ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." Stephen King

Caevan - Put a Volume pedal in that line-up somewhere, so you can 'swell' the Feedback effect in and out. I find the Volume pedal to be a great assist with the E-Bow, as well.

Oh, yeah, I love using a volume-pedal, for gain/clean-to-dirty tones and feedback control, as well as volume-swell and simulated 'backward' effects.

I could put a volume-pedal in the effects-loop/insert of my Sustainiac Model C to control the feedback that way, or simply place it before the input of the Sustainiac 'pedal'.

Somewhat similarly, I can and do use my guitar's volume-controls to adjust, bring in, or eliminate feedback generated by my Sustainiac Model C, as well as 'natural' feedback brought on by gain and speaker-proximity. Works great!

Originally Posted By: Winston Psmith

Also, a Volume pedal following your Looper will allow you to fade out Looped material. Some Loopers have a Fade-out feature, or a function that lets you play to the end of the loop, but too often, they just abruptly cut off the loop whenever you hit the switch.

(Does the Strymon allow you to assign an Exp pedal to the Loop playback? I know the Boss doesn't.)

I could assign an expression-pedal to the El Capistan's Mix control if I wanted to. Or, I could do so with its Repeats (feedback/regeneration) control, or just dial the knob back manually, to have a loop fade-out, earliest to latest layers dubbed fading out respectively.

I could probably get similar results with something like an Option Knob or Third-Hand mechanical-pedal connected to my Boss RC-20XL's loop Level control...

For the most part, currently, my looping needs are relatively simple and straightforward; I don't mind the more utilitarian and abrupt endings, etc..

The RC-20XL is plenty enough looper for me for now, and it's good for typical cut-and-dry looping.

I use the El Capistan much less often for looping, and when I do, it's less often for straight-up 'live overdub' looping where one plays over repeating figures, etc., and more often for stranger, somewhat more surreal aural painting that benefits from the El Capistan's simulated tape-crinkle, wow and flutter, and gradual but steady fading and degradation, not to mention occasional deliberate upward or downward jumps in pitch and speed.

Originally Posted By: Scott Fraser

Originally Posted By: Winston Psmith

FWIW, that Plus Pedal was too subtle for my taste; I could barely hear what it was doing.

It's not a very good demo, for sure, but I was thinking it may just be the answer to my dreams. Can't tell without a hands on demo, though.

I suspect that the controls on the Plus pedal could be dialed-in for 'more', greater bombast, if you will.

Alright, it's not exactly new, but somehow I missed the Vox Delaylab, when it first came out. Anyone looking for a versatile, sweet-sounding Delay box, needs to check this one out. I've been digging into it for a little while, and it's quickly become one of my favorite effects devices.

Think of it as a sort-of DL4 on steroids; 30 User memory slots, instead of 3, a dedicated Reverse Loop switch, and a bunch of surprising effects. The big drawback; no MIDI or USB connections, so if you want to share you patches with anyone, you'll need to work up a Patch Data Sheet (remember those?) from the Preset Program Chart in the back of the Manual.

There are a lot of videos featuring the Delaylab, including a bunch of A/B comparisons with other Delays, but this one shows off some of the more oddball features.

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"Monsters are real, and Ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." Stephen King

Winston- The Delaylab looks to be an excellent pedal! Something Somethingsomethingsomethinzumti for everyone, and then some.

Also- I did get to try out the Mel9 the other day! Short answer: I liked it! I found that, on the one hand, it's a little fussy at times regarding picking-dynamics- you have to be very clear and succinct with it if you want it to trigger accurately. On the other hand, it isn't difficult to get a good grip on that; with a little attention and focus, I was quickly able to not only get excellent, consistent response, I was able to, say, sustain a wonderful low pedal-tone not unlike a cellist playing long continual whole-notes, while also playing shorter notes and figures along the lines of two or more viola and violin players harmonizing over said cellist pedal, by playing on the higher strings. I got compliments on that from a couple other people in the store.

I liked some of its voices better than others, but the ones I did like, I enjoyed quite a bit.

One thing that I've found with all of the 9 series- they are very bright and trebley, to the point that the control-settings on any given amp that my guitar- any guitar- sounds best with, are very much too bright for these EHX 9-series pedals, which require very different amp control-settings. I'd need a second amp and a good A/B/Y-switcher (Fulltone True-Path?) or at least an EQ of some kind to make them usable for live performance.

OK, I've been sitting on the fence about the Miku but this demo clinches the deal, firstly because, as he states, "It is the perfect pedal" but more importantly, I need to be able to crack myself up like this.

Well, friends, I took a chance and called my FLUMS, and they're holding the Bad Comrade for me until Monday - big work weekend ahead, so I'm not at liberty to go gear shopping for the next couple of days. Full report when I have it in my paws, but this could be the final brick in the wall, as far as my pedalboard array goes, the Crapulator I've been looking for. (It could also be the last straw, for some of my listeners, but WTH . . .) I would have liked a WMD Geiger Counter, and might still hold out for one at some later time, but this thing . . . it's almost obscene.

FWIW, I'm not sure if they (it may just be one guy?) make anything else. They're hand-signed and dated on the inside of the box, even the MKII's, which is why I suspect it's one guy, or at most, a very small crew. The MK1 version looks like a project box, while the MKII looks more like a commercial product, although they kept the 'dog-tag'-style serial # plate: Adds a nice, industrial vibe, don't you think?

Now, if it works with my EV-5 Expression Pedal . . .

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"Monsters are real, and Ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." Stephen King

Well, friends, I took a chance and called my FLUMS, and they're holding the Bad Comrade for me until Monday - big work weekend ahead, so I'm not at liberty to go gear shopping for the next couple of days. Full report when I have it in my paws, but this could be the final brick in the wall, as far as my pedalboard array goes, the Crapulator I've been looking for. (It could also be the last straw, for some of my listeners, but WTH . . .) I would have liked a WMD Geiger Counter, and might still hold out for one at some later time, but this thing . . . it's almost obscene.

Winston- when you go to check this Bad Comrade MkII out, be sure to first power it up with the Stutter off, and the Gate and Time controls turned up fully clockwise; do so EVERY time you power one up. Otherwise, it won't work right. After that- each time- set the controls however you like. Some useful information I ran across searchin' 'n' readin' up on this enthusiastic li'l robotic buddy from an alien world.

Originally Posted By: Winston Psmith

FWIW, I'm not sure if they (it may just be one guy?) make anything else. They're hand-signed and dated on the inside of the box, even the MKII's, which is why I suspect it's one guy, or at most, a very small crew. The MK1 version looks like a project box, while the MKII looks more like a commercial product, although they kept the 'dog-tag'-style serial # plate: Adds a nice, industrial vibe, don't you think?

Turns out that Graig Markel and Recovery Effects do in fact make and distribute a variety of electronic/sonic-pervertulators. I believe you're otherwise right on all counts therein, Mr. Psmith.

The following F.A.Q. entry 'splains much to one of the extrapulatin' mindset:

Originally Posted By: Graig Markel Music dot com

Q: What is your Return Policy? A: If you want the option of returning a perfectly functioning pedal, please order from one of our dealers. We have a small operation, and our primary focus is building pedals. Product returns add a lot of work to our day, and pull us away from focusing on our products. Alternately, all of our dealers have excellent return policies. It is their focus to deal with sales, refunds, exchanges, etc.